


Alive

by moonmoth (greyvvardenfell)



Series: Moth & Raven [42]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canonical Character Death, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:07:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23588131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greyvvardenfell/pseuds/moonmoth
Summary: Reyja has a nightmare about Julian's hanging.
Relationships: Apprentice/Julian Devorak, Julian Devorak/Original Character(s)
Series: Moth & Raven [42]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1696501
Kudos: 26





	Alive

“No!" 

Reyja bolted upright, sweat beaded across her forehead and tears streaming down her cheeks. The image of Julian’s body hanging broken from its noose, all grotesque angles and graying skin in the prisms of her dreaming memory, wouldn’t leave her even as her conscious mind registered the stirring warmth of the living Julian beside her, roused by her cry if not her movement.

She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes and drew her knees to her chest, trying to stifle her sobs before he awakened fully. It would only make him miserable, to know what had caused such distress. Reyja sank her teeth into her forearm to keep herself quiet, squeezing her eyes shut behind the darkness of her palms against the pain as well as the guilt but seeing only another flash of Julian’s lifeless eyes, staring her down from the past as if to ask why she hadn’t done as she promised and saved him.

"Love?” The softest voice through her shuddering despair. A shift, the mattress dipping as he sat up and touched her shoulder, then gently pulled her hands away from her face. Reyja choked back another sob, avoiding his concern, half-trying to escape the light hold he had on her wrists. She gave it barely enough to count as an attempt before crumpling into his chest, wrapping her arms around herself when he let her go.

“It happened again, it happened again!” Her words were muffled, unintelligible with her face buried in the crook of his neck. But Julian didn’t need to hear them: Reyja had only one recurring nightmare that disturbed her like this. 

“Oh, darling… I’m so sorry.” He folded himself around her and kissed the side of her head, tears welling in his own eyes. Carefully, he maneuvered so she rested on top of him, cradled in his lap under the covers. The steady thump of his heart, the rush of air in his lungs, the caresses of his fingers through her hair and down her back, they all wove through Reyja’s mind as solid reminders that she hadn’t failed, that Julian had come back to her. He was here. He was hers. He was alive.

Alive.

 _Alive_.


End file.
